Glogster Ethnographic Study Report

MSC 560 - Week 11 An Ethnographic Report on Gloster.com

by Cynthia Lieberman – 7-31-10 Abstract This paper sets out to address some of the reasons how multimedia narrative social networking sites (SNS) like Glogster.com allow people of all ages to express themselves publicly and privately in ways that have never been available before. This paper will also review some of the culture and community on Glogster and how it works well for teens (and even adults like me) from an ethnographic point of view.

Introduction Thanks to computer-mediated communications (CMC), teens in particular are expressing themselves with the use of multimedia narratives in new ways society has never seen before.

From an anecdotal perspective, as a ‘tween and teen, I enjoyed making posters out of glue, newspapers and magazine clippings that allowed me to express “how I truly felt” about love, boys, music, my friends, myself. It was never public though. Now, through an SNS site mainly targeted to youth, Glogster.com (which also includes Edu.Glogster.com), self-created posters can be seen by thousands of people online.

Description of www.Glogster.com A glog is a graphic blog, which is much like a poster, only better because it is much more interactive. It is an online poster that allows users to incorporate various media elements to tell a personal narrative from a user’s point of view through the utilization of their own personal media elements such as photos, video, music and more.

Glogster is a three-year-old SNS that provides a revolutionary way of expressing moods, feelings and ideas that go far beyond text or video. Their web 2.0 tools enable users to create interactive online collages using a simple drag and drop interface. Glogster opens the door to a whole new world of communication that lets people express all the things they are not always able to describe with just words. Users can easily choose built-in graphics, text, backgrounds and shapes or upload their own, along with their own music, photos, videos and hyperlinks to use on their glogs. The end result is a personalized, interactive, digital poster filled with a colorful medley of ideas, reflecting the users own unique style.

Participation / Community Experience The first objective was to examine how teens (as well as others) made use of the various media capabilities afforded by Glogster to express their emotions, behaviors, likes, dislikes, cultural differences and more on the site.

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As I wrote in last week’s paper on media literacy, when CMC is used in education, students can amalgamate their creative ideas, map their stories out and create them in a digital media form. This allows kids to interact with the material they are learning as well as converse with their peers on how they merged the different elements (oral, visual, text and movement) to create a media literacy vehicle. This also holds true for people who just want to have fun, to communicate and share their feelings in a more expressive, interactive way.

As evidenced immediately by most of the visual glog thumbnails posted on the home page, a generous amount of the gloggers were in their ‘tweens, teens or twenties.

Therefore, my first attempt was to pretend to be one of the natives by posting a profile that claimed I was 22 years old. Then I proceeded to create my own Glogster poster so I could communicate better with my “peers” (see “Never Too Late” poster #2). I also added a younger looking photo and some generic information for my profile.

The home page is divided into several sections, including “my dashboard,” “new glogs,” “top glogs,” “categories,” “gloggers” (i.e. find people) and “G-Lab” (a place for feedback from Glogster members).

When you first log in, you can see your messages on your dashboard, along with the number of views your own glog received, plus any comments or ratings it has been given. It is fairly easy to edit or update your glog and you can also reply to comments while there.

As I began to explore different glogs, I started putting some in a “favs” folder. I went into the Glogsters section to see just exactly how many Glogsters on the site were between the ages of 50-55. There were only five gloggers listed on the search page—all women—with two from Argentina and three from the U.S. Then I checked ages 12-15 and there were 20 pages of gloggers listed from both sexes. The number decreased almost 50% with only 9 pages of gloggers for ages 16-20. From ages 21-25, there was only one page, and from 26-40, there were two pages total (most likely because this is a wider age span).

I suspect there are many reasons for this. At the young of ‘tweens and teens, they are at the peak of defining themselves and their identities in the world, and this coupled with their hormones in crisis, creates a tremendous passion to express themselves as individuals (Gale Encyclopedia of Information, 2001) .

Just as the ancient cut-and-paste collages of earlier decades, the digital poster helps users define who they are. The ability to do it publicly and somewhat anonymously, followed by the possible opportunity for people to support their messaging by ratings and the number of views can help build up a person’s self-efficacy if positively received.

By the time adolescents hit 16-20, they start dating, getting cars and jobs, prepping and/or going to college. All these opportunities provide outside distractions, as well as

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more freedom and ability to express themselves more fully in the real world, leaving less need or time to shout it out on an interactive online poster.

The general conversations and comments on posters range from “Awesome glog. =D” to “cool” to “yo chk it dat babe is clutch” to “aww i luvee itt, veryy pretty gloggy ^^ lykee the pic”. The latter one was a comment by the creator of a rather sophisticated poster called “Letters to Him” (see poster #1) created by 13-year-old SaRaHaNnE10. She describes herself as: “hiya :] otay well my name iz Sarah but u can call me shorty if u want 2.I am 13 yearz old nd my birthday iz May 10th. I am currently taken<3. I love music,my friendz,running,hangin out. My favorite color iz lime green. Well i tink datz basically it if u hav any ?z add me nd ask.

Thankz!!<3” I reached out to talk with her and a few others in the 12-16 age bracket, but I think my initial introduction didn’t sound very relatable, so I changed my tactic. I started with a reality check that my graduation video on my “Never Too Late” poster (see poster #2) was a dead giveaway that I was not 22! I upped my age to 43 (just to be safer), reached out to several more, including those in my REAL age group of 50-55, and finally got a response from a 15-year-old girl, babe1995, who lives in Portugal (see poster #3, “Does That Mean I’m a Looser” and the SNS conversation that follows).

When you look at her poster, note that there is a blond looking out at you. This is a photo of Katie Babyface, an extremely popular internet “model” who created a mythical stir amongst teens—and the Glogster crowd. Supposedly Katie was this hot “it” girl who is rumored to eventually, tragically, have died in a car accident. There are dozens of blogs that use Katie Babyface’s image, and a plethora of websites and youtube videos, many of them obviously fakers and posers.

Starting as an admirer of someone’s work first before telling them I’m in a class helped make the conversation more organic. Although she is from Portugal, babe1995 is fairly well spoken and wrote articulate teenage English, and we shared information about cool sites. I found that because I was forthcoming about my kids and my life, she loosened up a little. Good two-way conversation takes time, and I have a feeling our conversations will continue.

Relationships/Sense of community While the user’s profile may provide some insight about the person posting a glog, it is all based on the user’s discretion of what to reveal or not reveal.

As with all SNS, there are costs and benefits to this growing form of media expression.

Many of the glogs are posted by minors who choose to display their photos in a provocative way or brag about their drug use, use excessive cursing, or discuss topics that are not generally approved; say when adults, parents or teachers are around.

Unfortunately, displaying photos that are highly sexual or flirtatious can lure sexual or 3

unscrupulous predators to make contact and potentially put a naïve glogger in harm’s way.

On the other hand, glogs are a benefit to many people, and especially teens, who need an outlet to express their fears and joys and explore their personal and social identities without needing approval from the physical outside world. ‘Tweens and younger teens especially tend to post a lot about love, being in love, relationship breakups, etc. It is often done in immature ways using characters like “Hello Kitty” or using emoticon/sns linguistics similar to SaRaHaNnE10’s profile description ( “nd i lyk sum TV showz but i dun rlly hav a favorite”) . Sometimes the responses sound like a form of “internet baby talk” (i.e. “otay,” “diz” and “cuz”] and other times like a gangster (“dat is off da chain”).

Users are also offered the opportunity to rate glogs. I wonder if people ever go out their way to only give 1 star out of 5 or to post insults in the comments? I know I gave 4 and 5 stars for the ones I liked and nothing for those that I did not care either way. It could be a way to insult another online friend, creating social angst for the creator.

However, this does not seem the tone of the way Glogster communications work, at least not yet.

There is a button people can click on that indicates a glog has inappropriate content. As stated on their site, inappropriate content is anything that “contains racial hate, nudity, pornography or anything unsuitable for an audience of 18 years and younger” and “If 5 users click the inappropriate tag on your glog, the glog will be hidden” (Glogster, 2010).

The only way the glog can be restored is if an administrator approves it, otherwise it is immediately erased.

Conclusion I learned a valuable lesson in just why marketers hire youth to converse about their products in chat sites. I could no more use “diz” and “dat” in a natural youth-speak way than swim the English Channel, at least not without training.

The ability for a person—especially youth—to explore and experiment with their identity through multimedia glogging and under the cloak of anonymity is similar to text-based communications on other SNS sites. “With no equivalent ‘offline’ group, membership and participation in a relevant virtual group” such as Glogster, sites like this “can become an important part of one’s social distinctiveness and can have powerful effects on one’s sense of self and identity “ (Amichai-Hamburger, 2005, pg. 204).

Even if they curse or display themselves provocatively, it is entirely possibly this form of self-expression satiates the teen (and even adult) urges that they are too afraid--or smart--to present offline.

Regardless, it will be interesting to see if the trend continues in the general public space and future alternative SNS sites like this develop. Glogster also serves as a great way to promote products, projects or special activities such as contests held on the site for bands like “One Republic” (see poster #4) and products like “Fruit of the Loom” and 4

movies. In the meantime, in addition to being a useful expression and marketing outlet, it easily transcends as a simple-to-use educational tool for schools to use to teach kids media literacy and critical thinking in a whole new way (www.edu.glogster.com). It is also an art psychologist’s dream.

REFERENCES Amichai-Hamberger, Y, and Ben-Artzi, E. (2003). Loneliness and Internet Use. Computers in Human Behavior. 19. 204.

Anne, S. (n.d.). LeTtErS tO hImSaRaHaNnE10's Profile | Glogster. Retrieved August 1, 2010, from http://sarahanne10.glogster.com/letters-to-him3/ babe1995's Profile | Glogster. (n.d.). babe1995's Profile | Glogster. Retrieved July 31, 2010, from http://babe1995.glogster.com/ Don't get lost: bitch, crowd, dreams, indeed, lost, now, our, time, you, yourself | Glogster. (n.d.). superfreake's Profile | Glogster. Retrieved July 30, 2010, from http://superfreake.glogster.com/Dont-get-lost/ Glogster – Poster Yourself | Text, Images, Music and Video. (n.d.). Glogster – Poster Yourself |. Retrieved August 1, 2010, from http://WWW.GLOGSTER.COM Identity/Identity formation. (2001, April 6). Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology. Retrieved July 31, 2010, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_g2699/is_0001/ai_2699000172/ Life: austria, beach, beautiful, camp, collage, fun, jersey, life, photography , pictures | Glogster. (n.d.). squirrelygurl's Profile | Glogster. Retrieved July 30, 2010, from http://squirrelygurl.glogster.com/glog-440-660/ Music's !: awesome, coolio, crazy, genres, gneres, great, many, music, playlist, random | Glogster. (n.d.). Issa's Profile | Glogster. Retrieved July 31, 2010, from http://issa.glogster.com/Musics-/ Lieberman, C. (2010, July 30). NEVER TOO LATE: text, images, music, video | Glogster.

Dotdotdots's Profile | Glogster. Retrieved July 31, 2010, from http://dotdotdots.glogster.com/liebermanc/ OneRepublic Contest | Glogster. (n.d.). Glogster – Poster Yourself | Text, Images, Music and Video. Retrieved July 30, 2010, from http://www.glogster.com/contest/onerepublic/

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APPENDIX

REFERENCED GLOGSTER PAGES AND OTHER EXAMPLES

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POSTER #1 “LeTtErS tO hIm</3” (SaRaHaNnE10)

http://sarahanne10.glogster.com/letters-to-him3/

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POSTER #2 – “Never Too Late” (dotdotdots aka Cynthia Lieberman)

http://dotdotdots.glogster.com/liebermanc/ 8

POSTER #3 – “Does That Mean I’m a Looser” (babe1995)

http://babe1995.glogster.com/

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Comment Conversation Between babe1995 and dotdotdots (Cynthia Lieberman) :D yes, i am in portugal! here is almost midnight xD its exactly 11:57 pm now! and yes, im 15! hum, i see that your a very caring mother!

----------------Dotdotdots wrote: 6 hours wait! I just realized that you are in Portugal!? It's 3:30 in the afternoon here, how about there? And given your screen name, I'm thinking you are 15? My daughter is 1987 and my son 1990 :) ----------------babe1995 wrote: 7 hours loool! hey, i know a very cool site too! i think you might like this kinde of stuf: sodahead.com and once you like study the human behaviour, this site will be perfect for you (i guess) xD omg! thats soo true! i wish all my teachers thought in that way!! omg! saw the video and i´ve got to say that it was really impressive! your daughter is the perfect example that dreams can come true!

----------------Dotdotdots wrote: 7 hours Thanks for the link and also for not trashing my glog hahahahhaha before I forget you might wan to check out this new kewl site I found...dailybooth.com it's like FB updates+pics+IM+tweet instantaneously!

Ya, I'm in a masters program with UCLA/Fielding Univerity in LA. It's about the study of human behavior and how it's affected by the media and how to use make the world a better place. Hard to believe this is homework!

I'm really interested in how to use GLOGSTEREDU to have students create Glogs in school, like the life of Benjamin Franklin, only using pix, music, video, text etc. instead of just a book report. It's such a FUN way to learn.

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My daughter just got her bachelors degree at SFSU in Fine Arts and is going back to school to get her degree in teaching so she can be an art teacher! :) I turned her on to this site, and well, fugggedabout it.

I use my son's college friends as lab rats when I'm testing out stuff (glogster being the latest) and they give me great info. I cal ----------------babe1995 wrote: 8 hours lol FIRST: you´re welcome SENCOND: thank you!btw, i saw your glog, and its not bad at all! it kinda looks cool! omg!"graduate program about Media Psychology"? it seems so awesome!!ae you on college or something? hum, i dont know if babyfayce is dead or not! some sites say that she is, like this one: http://callindra-drogan-dies-in-oahu.blogspot.com/2010/03/katie-babyfayce-dies-in-car-accident-at.html ----------------Dotdotdots wrote: 8 hours FIRST, thanks so much for friending me and writing me right back!

Second, you may not be a pro, but you definitely have a great way of expressing yourself. Thank you for sharing your first glog, boy have you come a long way! Gives me hope. Mine is kind of a mess, I did it in a hurry becuz I'm in this graduate program about Media Psychology and the assignment was join a social networking site and describe how people express themselves etc. I could do this all day and all night!

When I saw Katie Babyface I started noticing she's everywhere and started looking into it. Is she really dead?

----------------babe1995 wrote: 9 hours awww thank you! :D yeah, i know, glogster is a very addictive thing !

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lol, im not a pro artist, i only create glogs for fun! hum,long story short xD actually, it was in school, my english teacher tell us to make a glog about "the time machine"...and i did! i´ve been addicted to glogster since then. btw, wanna see my 1st glog (the time machine one)??lol, i can show you, it wasnt on this account: http://iogurte.glogster.com/glog-3162-9601/ ----------------Dotdotdots wrote: 10 hours I am blown away by your talent. Your stuff is really really good! I just started glogging a few days ago and it is addictive. Are you a pro artist or are you hoping to be? How did you even find glogging. seriously ur stuff is inspiring. Simple graphics, BIG MESSAGES! _____________________________________________________________________

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POSTER #4 – “One Republic Contest”

http://www.glogster.com/contest/onerepublic/ 13

Thumbnails of Some of dotdotdots (My) Favorite Sites

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Musics (Issa) is one of the best use of media and voted one of the highest viewed of all time . When you click on each of the triangular â&#x20AC;&#x153;playâ&#x20AC;? buttons, it plays a different song. A popular Glogster, she has created 56 glogs and 15,331 views on the site.

http://issa.glogster.com/Musics-/ 15

‘Life’ (squirrely girl) used photos in a creative way for this glog about life. As you can see by the next screen grab of other glogs she has created, she has 15 glogs, with 58,145 views and almost 1,000 friends. Music: “Build Me Up Buttercup” which is played when you press the seemingly hand drawn “play” triangle on the right of the page.

http://squirrelygurl.glogster.com/glog-440-660/

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http://squirrelygurl.glogster.com 17

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http://superfreake.glogster.com/Dont-get-lost/

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